Walker Evans
New York City

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Images(2)

Artist Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975)American, 1903–1975

CultureAmerican

Titles

New York City

Date1928–1929

PlaceNew York City, New York, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 11 15/16 × 7 5/8 in. (30.4 × 19.3 cm)
Sheet: 12 1/16 × 7 11/16 in. (30.6 × 19.6 cm)

Credit LineThe Anthony G. Cronin Memorial Collection, museum purchase funded by various donors

Object number79.86

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionIn 1928 at the age of 25, Walker Evans taught himself to photograph, choosing New York City as his primary subject. Within a decade, Evans would become one of the premiere photographers in the US, best known for his Depression-era documentation of the rural South. Though it was produced early in his career, this print of two illuminated advertisements encapsulates Evans’s unique vision—a straight and stylish composition of converging lines, contrasting swathes of light and shadow, and dramatic perspective, all sharply focused and beautifully printed on gelatin silver paper.
Provenance[The Cronin Gallery, Houston]; purchased by MFAH, 1979.
Exhibition History"New York: Yesterday and Tomorrow," Shell and the American Landscape Museum, Houston, May 8–September 12, 2002.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

verso top left corner in pencil " .59 "

verso lower right a stamp " Walker Evans / [two rectangular boxes] "

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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